


Loved you once, loved you twice

by ravenbringslight



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, Thor (Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Blind Date, Coffee Shops, Fix-It of Sorts, Identity Issues, Kisses, M/M, So many kisses, background stucky, some avengers show up too, the tags do NOT adequately describe this fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-05
Updated: 2020-07-05
Packaged: 2021-03-04 20:15:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,020
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25072216
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ravenbringslight/pseuds/ravenbringslight
Summary: Loki's friend Steve sets him up on a blind date with the hottest guy Loki's ever seen, who also happens to only have one eye. Loki desperately wants to know what happened to the other one.The truth turns out to be weirder than anything Loki ever dreamed of.
Relationships: Loki/Thor (Marvel)
Comments: 45
Kudos: 710





	Loved you once, loved you twice

**Author's Note:**

> This is an odd little story that I found mostly written in my docs from a few years ago and spent a day finishing up. Thanks Rai for reading it over for me, and thanks to the gc for listening to me yell about it. Hope you all enjoy!

Loki drummed his fingers on the coffee-stained table top and blew an errant strand of hair out of his face. He inspected his nail polish for the twelfth time, checked his phone for the fifty-seventh, took a sip of his now-stone-cold Americano.

How he had let himself get talked into this, he had no idea.

Just when Loki was about to cut his losses and leave, the bell on the cafe door tinkled and the hottest guy Loki had ever seen walked in.

He groaned.

Steve had told him that he’d know his blind date when he saw him— _Just trust me, buddy, you’ll **know**_ he’d said with a wink and a laugh. And here, obviously, was Loki’s blind date. Because the man was literally fucking blind. He only had one eye.

One piercing blue eye, and two really jacked arms, and a megawatt smile that he was now focusing directly on Loki. Loki gulped.

“Are you Loki?” the man said, holding out his hand expectantly. It dwarfed Loki’s completely, making it look like a doll hand in comparison and turning him into a stuttering fool. 

“I, uh, hello. I mean yes. I’m Loki. And you are?”

“Thor. Can I sit?”

Loki gestured to the empty seat and took another sip of his coffee to cover his nerves. He didn’t know why he was so nervous. It wasn’t like he’d never been on a first date before, right?

“So, uh, what’s good here?” Thor asked.

“Oh, I don’t know. I always just get an Americano with room.”

“‘With room’?”

“For milk.”

“Ah.”

Thor looked nervous too, which actually made Loki feel a little bit better. Maybe they were on semi equal footing here.

“Ok, I’ll uh. I’ll just be right back,” Thor said.

Loki watched Thor as he got in line. He was really something to look at. Big shoulders. Tight ass. Nicer tits than most women. Where the hell had Steve dug this guy up? Then again, Steve was no slouch in the looks department himself. Maybe they had a club. Must be over six feet tall and blond, with a smile like sunshine and arms that can break tree trunks and eyes that can break hearts. Or, ok—at least _one_ eye that can break hearts.

Thor came back with some kind of whipped cream chocolate flavored monstrosity that may or may not have had any actual coffee in it, and Loki tried to pretend he hadn’t just been staring at Thor’s ass like it was a painting in a museum.

“So, _Thor_. How do you know Steve?”

It seemed as good an ice breaker as any, and to Loki’s relief Thor took him up on it.

“Well, you see, we work together—”

Thor turned out to be a good conversationalist once he got going. He talked a lot about himself, which was just as well, because Loki didn’t really want to talk about his own life. Thor was charming and funny and Loki felt himself loosening and warming up to him, and before he knew it two hours had gone by and he had been smiling for nearly half of it.

“And how about you?” Thor asked at some point. He looked like he earnestly wanted to know the answer. Loki had been kind of lost in watching Thor’s lips and hadn’t actually heard the question. 

“Oh, I don’t know,” Loki said smoothly. Thor’s hand was resting on the table and Loki reached over to touch the back of it. “I do have a question I’ve been _dying_ to ask you though.”

“What?” Thor said, one side of his mouth lifting in a smile as he turned his hand over and wrapped his warm fingers around Loki’s wrist. Oh, that was nice.

“Your eye,” Loki said. “What happened to it?”

Thor gave Loki’s wrist a squeeze, then leaned in and said, very seriously, “Shark attack.”

Loki smiled. “What was it really?”

“You don’t believe me?” Thor said, all innocence. He held up his other palm and Loki put his hand on that one as well. His stomach fluttered. “You’re right. It was actually a lightning strike.”

“Nice try.”

“A particularly vicious squirrel?”

“Fine,” Loki said, sighing dramatically. “Don’t tell me.”

Thor laughed. “I’ll tell you,” he said, “but not today.”

“Why not today?”

“Because maybe then you’ll give me a second date.”

Loki smirked. He fished a pen out of his messenger bag with one hand, then held Thor’s hand still with the other and wrote his number on Thor’s palm. Following some impulse, he lifted Thor’s hand and kissed the digits.

“Call me,” Loki said.

“I will,” Thor promised.

*

Thor called the next day, and Loki met him at the park.

“I thought maybe we could walk and talk,” Thor said. “If you don’t mind.”

There were several well-paved trails that ran through the trees and along the riverfront before looping back around to the parking lot. The sun was warm but the dappled shade of the trees was cool and inviting. Loki had overdressed a bit for the weather and he welcomed the shade.

And Thor’s company.

“So what do you do for a living?” Thor asked. Loki had started out walking on Thor’s right, but had quickly switched to his left when he realized that Thor had to turn his head all the way to see him at all. The backs of their hands kept brushing and sending tingles down into Loki’s stomach.

“I don’t like to get tied down to any one thing,” Loki said.

“Well what are you doing right now?”

“Not much I’m afraid. I’m just lucky that Steve is letting me squat at his extra place until I can get money coming in again.”

“He isn’t charging you rent?”

“He’s a good friend.”

“Any prospects, then?” Thor asked.

Loki knew that this line of questioning was just...general small talk. The kind of thing that anyone liked to find out about someone they were getting to know. But it made him feel agitated and defensive, and a little snippy.

“I don’t want to talk about it,” Loki said shortly.

Thor put his hands up. “Sorry.” Then, “What did you do before? Art or something? Music? You look like—”

“I said I don’t want to talk about it.”

They walked in silence for a few minutes, Loki cursing himself inwardly.

“Maybe I’ll tell you some other day,” Loki said finally. “So that you’ll have a reason to call me again after the way I just acted.”

Thor bumped their shoulders together. “I was going to call you again anyway.”

Loki turned to him, smiling with more relief than was strictly necessary, and he caught Thor looking at him with such affection that it made him blush. There was something else in that look too, a sadness, though Loki wasn’t sure why.

“So what about that eye, huh?” Loki said, trying for a lighter tone.

“If you must know,” Thor said, “I was robbed by a pack of street urchins. Their elbows are very pointy.”

Loki snorted and bumped Thor’s shoulder back.

*

Loki texted Thor later that night.

Thor  
  
**Loki:** Dinner tomorrow?  
  
**Thor:** YES  
  
**Thor:** Did you have anywhere in mind?  
  


*

Loki had only seen Thor in a t-shirt and jeans so far, but he came to pick Loki up in an open-collar button down shirt with a blazer that set his shoulders off to absolute perfection, and Loki had to stop himself from just running his hand straight up Thor’s chest in lieu of a ‘hello.’

“Do you mind if I come in and use the bathroom?” Thor asked.

Loki felt a stab of nerves, but told himself to knock it off.

“Sure,” Loki said. “It’s on the left over there.”

He looked around his apartment in embarrassment while he waited for Thor to finish. It was...stark. Barely any furniture, nothing on the walls. Not even a TV. It wasn’t even a money thing, it was just…

Loki heard Thor flush and tried to school his features into something resembling normalcy.

“Ready?” Loki chirped when Thor came out.

“So Steve says you just moved in a few weeks ago,” Thor said as they walked down the sidewalk. The restaurant was a good twenty minute walk but they’d decided to tough it out so that they could drink. “Where’d you move here from?”

Loki felt his neck go hot, and then cold.

This was all so ridiculous. Thor was just trying to get to know him.

 _Just make something up_.

“Just across town,” Loki lied. “My landlord was selling my old place out from under me.”

“Oh I thought it must be further away since it doesn’t look like your stuff got here yet. Did anything happen to it?”

Loki could kick himself.

“I donated most of it. Wanted a clean start, you know.”

It was a stupid answer, but it was all that Loki had. He didn’t know how to answer, because he didn’t know.

“That was very generous of you.”

“It’s one of my faults.”

*

It turned out that Thor held his liquor like a champ, but that his nose got adorably pinker with each cocktail.

It also turned out that Loki did not hold his liquor like a champ. He leaned in and kissed that adorable pink nose—before immediately excusing himself to the bathroom to throw up all the expensive steak he’d just eaten.

*

They cabbed back to Loki’s place, Loki wedging himself under Thor’s shoulder in the back seat.

“That eyeee,” Loki complained. “When are you going to tell me?”

Thor hummed and stroked Loki’s arm. “The man in the moon came down and plucked it out himself.”

“You’re a jerk.”

Thor kissed the top of his head.

*

Loki woke up in the morning with a fuzzy head and a note sitting on the windowsill next to the bed along with a bottle of Advil.

_I left you some breakfast in the fridge. Take the meds and make sure to drink a lot of water. I’ll call you later. xoxo_

In the kitchen, Loki found an egg and cheese sandwich from the bodega on the corner along with a huge coffee, both of which he reheated in the microwave before eating them standing up at the counter.

It wasn’t until he sniffled that he realized he was crying.

He didn’t even know why.

*

“Why do you keep going out with me?” Loki asked.

“What do you mean?”

“I’m obviously a weirdo, I never tell you anything about myself, fuck, I don’t even put out—”

They were having coffee again, which seemed a safer bet than alcohol after last time, and Loki spun his cardboard cup in his hands and worried at the edge of the lid with his thumbnail.

Thor’s hand on his wrist stilled Loki’s fidgeting. Loki stared at it. He couldn’t make himself meet Thor’s eyes.

Thor sighed. “I don’t know much,” he said, “and I don’t want you to think I’ve been holding out on you. But Steve told me that something had happened to you and that...you might need a little…”

“What? Time?”

“Yes, that. And coaxing.”

Loki bristled at that and pulled his hand away.

“Coaxing? What, like I’m some kind of fucking horse or something?”

“No, b—Loki, it’s not like that.”

“Then what, exactly, is it like?”

Had Thor just almost called him babe?

“Just that...maybe, sometimes, questions might help?”

Loki pushed his chair all the way back and crossed his arms over his chest and tried to push down the panic and rage warring inside his stomach long enough to talk like a human instead of shriek like a harpy.

“I’d like to go home now.”

*

Home, to his plain walls as white and empty as the hospital room he’d woken up in a month ago.

*

Three days later, Loki finally texted Thor.

Thor  
  
**Loki:** I’m sorry  
  
**Loki:** I’d like to see you again if you don’t hate my guts now  
  
**Loki:** But I understand if you do  
  
**Thor:** I don’t hate your guts  
  
**Loki:** Can you come over?  
  
**Thor:** When?  
  
**Loki:** Now?  
  
**Thor:** On my way ❤️  
  


*

Thor showed up forty-five minutes later with an armful of Thai takeout and a hopeful smile.

“I hope you don’t mind that I brought food,” Thor said.

Loki’s only furniture besides his bed was a beat up old couch and a rickety coffee table (Steve’s friend Sam had hooked him up with them when his job was about to throw them away), and they ate on the floor with their food cartons spread out on the low table. Loki tried very hard to pretend it was all normal.

“So,” Loki said, poking his chopsticks around the bottom of his white takeout carton. “There’s something I should tell you.”

Thor had already inhaled his food so fast that Loki wasn’t even sure he had chewed it, and he leaned back on his elbows and looked at Loki expectantly.

“Ok,” Thor said. Gently, not prodding. Loki took a deep breath.

“I don’t remember anything from before a month ago,” Loki said all in a rush.

“Ok,” Thor said again.

“There was some kind of accident or something, but I don’t remember that either. So I’m sorry that I’m really weird when you ask me questions, and I’m sorry that I probably have way more issues than you want to deal with, and I’m sorry that I dragged you into this at all, and just...I’m sorry.”

“You don’t have anything to be sorry for,” Thor said.

Loki poked around at the dregs of his noodles again and didn’t say anything. He hated this. He didn’t want pity. He wanted Thor to get up and leave, or maybe to push him down onto the floor and ravish him. He definitely didn’t want to keep talking about this.

“Hey. Thank you for telling me.”

“Yeah.”

Big hands covered Loki’s, took his food away and set it on the table, then grasped Loki’s hands tightly.

“I still want to get to know you,” Thor said. “I want you to get to know me.”

Loki finally looked up at Thor and he had that same expression that he’d had at the park, a mixture of open affection and sadness, and it made Loki’s chest hurt. Thor reached up and put a hand on the back of Loki’s neck and Loki flinched away in sudden panic.

“Sorry,” Loki gasped, putting a hand to his chest like it could slow the erratic pounding of his heart. “I don’t...I don’t know why that scared me so much…”

“No, I’m the sorry one this time,” Thor said, banging on his thigh with his own fist. “I shouldn’t have...I should go…”

“No, wait!”

Loki scooted up onto his knees and took Thor’s hands again. The idea of Thor leaving was filling him with hopelessness. Right now Thor was the only happy part of his life, the only thing that made even the least amount of sense, and he wanted to hold onto it. To him.

Carefully, Loki took one of Thor’s hands and put it on his waist. Then he took the other and held it to his cheek with both hands, pressed his face into it, and kissed Thor’s palm.

“Please stay,” Loki whispered.

Thor ran his hand down over Loki’s shoulder and squeezed his upper arm, squeezed his waist with the other, and Loki leaned in and kissed him.

It wasn’t a long kiss, or a deep one, but it sparked something way down inside Loki’s subconscious. This felt familiar, and right, and more like home than this apartment ever, ever had, and all of Loki’s fear ebbed away.

“Did you know me before?” Loki asked when he pulled back. “I feel like, maybe…”

“You have to remember yourself,” Thor said gruffly, and that was an answer in itself.

Loki kissed him again, and ran his fingers up the back of Thor’s head through his close-cropped hair, and opened his mouth for Thor’s tongue. And Thor ran those giant hands up Loki’s back and pulled him closer and they melted together.

“I don’t know if we should…” Thor said, but his hold on Loki didn’t loosen, and Loki busied himself kissing his way down Thor’s neck.

“Why not?”

“It’s just...maybe you’ll regret it…”

“How could I? This feels right, doesn’t it?”

“Mmm,” Thor said, because Loki had found his lips again and they were occupied with something far better than talking.

“Can I touch here?” Loki asked softly, his fingertips hovering at the edge of Thor’s eyepatch. Thor nodded, and Loki stroked around the edge gently, laid light little kisses on it, heard Thor’s breathing go ragged. “You still haven’t told me how this happened.”

“You’d never believe me,” Thor said, grasping tightly at Loki’s waist.

“Lie to me, then.”

“You did it yourself, with a knife.”

Loki laughed. “I don’t think that sounds like me at all.”

Now it was Thor’s turn to laugh, and he captured Loki’s mouth again and kissed him soundly.

“Steve threw a frisbee at me and I caught it with my eyeball.”

“I’m sure Steve must feel terrible.”

For some reason Loki could picture it, could picture Steve with his arm extended, just having thrown...not a frisbee, but what?...but his face didn’t look playful, it looked...fierce? Loki shook his head and moved farther into Thor’s space, and sighed as Thor’s arms slid around him and tightened.

“I’m actually a superhero,” Thor said. “I gave up my eye in exchange for my superpowers.”

“And what superpowers would those be?” Loki asked. This teasing banter was soothing something inside of him that he hadn’t known was rough. He wanted to just kiss and tease like this for the foreseeable future, safe in Thor’s arms.

“Super tickling.” And then Thor’s fingers were in his ribs, and Loki was shrieking and squirming and laughing, and Thor, grinning wildly, bowled him over onto his back—and Loki laced his fingers together behind Thor’s neck and dragged him in for a breathless kiss—and when they broke apart—

“You do know me, don’t you,” Loki said, not a question.

Thor closed his eye and let his head sag a little. “...Yes.”

“And I know you?”

Thor looked up at him this time.

“Yes.”

“Have we ever done this before?”

Thor stroked a finger down Loki’s cheek.

“Yes.”

“Oh good. At least I know that past me wasn’t a _complete_ idiot.”

Thor pulled back though, and sat back on his heels, and looked at Loki very seriously. “I should tell you though...we haven’t...well, we _have_ , but not in a long time. A very long time.”

“Oh,” Loki said, raising himself up on his elbows. “So we weren’t together a month ago?”

Thor shook his head.

“Am I cheating on anybody else?”

Thor shook his head again.

“Then what’s the problem?”

Thor ran his hand through his hair in frustration. “Do you remember anything at all? Even a little?”

“I have a mental image of Steve throwing something that is definitely not a frisbee, and I know that kissing you feels right, and that sometimes when you look at me you look sadder than anybody I’ve ever seen. Come back down here and kiss me again.”

With a helpless groan, Thor fell back on top of him.

“You make me do foolish things,” Thor growled into Loki’s neck.

“Do them faster,” Loki urged, wrapping his legs around Thor’s waist.

Thor pressed him into the floor. The weight of him felt familiar. His lips found Loki’s again and they rubbed against each other, building up a delicious friction.

“You had long hair,” Loki panted, still clutching onto the back of Thor’s neck. “The last time we did this, you had long hair. I remember.”

“Yes,” Thor said harshly.

“And two eyes.”

Thor nodded against his neck.

“You called me...you called me…” Loki closed his eyes and gathered his thoughts. Reached for something elusive that he had felt was _right there_ just a second ago. His eyes snapped open.

“Brother.”

*

Loki was in the kitchen, scrubbing his face with cold water, and Thor was lingering worriedly in the doorway.

“Loki, I—”

“Just don’t talk,” Loki said. “Just for a minute. Don’t talk.” His hands were shaking. His brain was a whirl of confusion.

Thor was his brother. Thor had just made out with him, then dry humped him on the floor. Thor said that they had _had sex_ before.

But Thor was his brother.

“My eye,” Thor tried desperately. “I lost it fighting our sister. Hela.”

“Our sister.”

“On Asgard.”

Silence from Loki.

“We’re not humans, we’re gods.”

Loki laughed bitterly into the sink. “You can stop the ridiculous stories now,” he said. “I think we’re a bit past that.”

“This is the truth,” Thor insisted. “Look at me. I’m not lying to you.”

“Why are you doing this?” Loki said. “Just stop. You got what you wanted. Sex with the amnesiac. Now go.”

“I won’t.”

Loki looked up. Thor had his arms crossed stubbornly.

“I shouldn’t have let it go so far,” Thor said. “But I missed you so much, and I thought...maybe it would help you remember…”

“Oh, I remember,” Loki said. “I remember you dating me for two weeks pretending you’d never met me before, but that you’re my _fucking brother_. Tell me, were you planning on trying to get into my pants from the beginning? Just couldn’t pass up the opportunity? _Norns_.”

“Ahh!” Thor said excitedly, pointing at him, and Loki frowned.

“‘Norns’?” Loki said. “Why did I say that?”

“You’re remembering more!” Thor said.

Loki shoved Thor aside on his way out of the kitchen. He couldn’t think, not with Thor standing here invading his space and his own erection wilting in his boxers. Everything was so...fucking _weird_.

“I’m getting in the shower,” Loki announced. “Hopefully I’ll drown.”

“Loki.” Thor’s voice sounded strange.

Loki stopped, his back to Thor.

“Try to remember,” Thor said. “Please.”

“You’d better be gone when I get out.”

The bathroom door made a satisfyingly loud slam behind him.

*

Loki’s dreams that night were nightmares. He had blue hands—no, his hands weren’t blue, but they were covered in blood, _Thor’s_ blood—a knife fell from his numb fingers—a choking pressure on his neck, a snap—

He woke up gasping and sweating, both hands on his throat.

An hour later, dressed and caffeinated, Loki left his apartment, texting Steve as he took the stairs two at a time.

Steve  
  
**Loki:** Meet me on your lunch break today  
  
**Steve:** We don’t really do those here. But I have some time if you’re free now?  
  
**Loki:** Great. Meet me now  
  


Loki sat at the same table he’d waited for Thor at that first time, methodically shredding a napkin into smaller and smaller pieces as he waited for Steve to show up. When he finally did, it was with an entourage, Sam, and another man with long brown hair and both hands in his pockets.

“I wanted to talk to _you_ , not half of New York,” Loki said sourly.

“Sorry,” Steve said, though he didn’t sound that apologetic. He touched the long-haired guy’s back and whispered something in his ear, and the guy smiled. Then he winked at Loki and steered Sam over to another table, leaving just Steve to sit down across from Loki.

“Hey buddy,” Steve said. He leaned in conspiratorially. “What did you want to talk about?”

“What do you and Thor do for work?” Loki said.

Steve sat back in his chair, nonplussed. “Not what I thought you were going to open with, I admit.”

“Well?” Loki said.

“We, uh...we help people.”

“How? Are you firefighters? Medics?”

“Not exactly?”

“Then what, exactly?”

Loki watched with narrowing eyes as Steve stammered his way through something obviously false, then waved him into silence.

“What did I do before the accident?”

“The doctor said that it was best to let you find your memories on your own—”

Loki huffed in frustration. “How do I know you? Were we friends? What kind of friends were we, that you’re letting me stay in your place rent-free and you gave me a credit card with my name on it that I’ve never gotten a bill for?”

Steve was studying him. Probably trying to calculate whatever lie he was going to use to make Loki feel better.

“I know you know how to fight,” Loki said.

Steve scratched at his beard and looked away, crossing his arms. “Look—”

“What about Thor?” Loki said. “A blind date, huh? Did he tell you he knew me already? Did he tell you that he was my br—”

Suddenly Steve was shifting, fumbling his phone out of his pocket. It was buzzing and wailing, the screen flashing. Twin echoes came from across the cafe. Sam and the other guy were getting to their feet, practically running over.

“Steve,” Sam said. “We gotta—”

“I know. Loki, I’m sorry, I have to go. It’s, um—”

“Work emergency,” the other guy said. He gave Steve his hand to pull him to his feet and for a second Loki thought it looked like it was made of metal, but he was already shoving his hands back in his pockets and Loki couldn’t get a second look.

“Yeah, ok,” Loki said. “Whatever.”

“I’ll text you!” Steve called out, and then all three of them were gone.

*

Loki didn’t want to go back to his apartment. He left the cafe and just started walking aimlessly. The city bustled around him, all normal people with normal lives doing normal things. All of them could remember their lives from a month ago. None of them had just made out with someone who called them “brother” (well, probably none of them. It was a big city, though…). 

Thor hadn’t sent any messages since Loki kicked him out yesterday, which hurt in a way that it shouldn’t. He kept replaying everything that had happened. It didn’t help. His thoughts just chased each other around in circles like two wolves trying to eat each other.

 _Skoll and Hati_ , he thought, then shook his head, pressing his palm to his temple. Where had those names come from?

He passed a toy store. One of the window displays had a cardboard sign with THE AVENGERS on it in huge red letters, and underneath it a handful of action figures in various poses. There was a huge green monster pounding both fists on the ground. Next to it was a red-haired woman all in black on a stand that made her look like she was in mid-leap. “Hulk,” the first one said, and “Black Widow” the other. Earth’s mightiest heroes.

A masked figure in blue with a shield stared at Loki, its gaze accusing. “Captain America.”

“What are you looking at?” Loki muttered.

Wait, was that…

He stopped. He got as close to the window as he could, knocking his forehead into it trying to see the figures closer. Flanking the man in blue were two others, one whose face was a dead ringer for Sam and another who looked like the guy in the coffee shop with the metal hand. He had it here too, although it was his whole arm. “Falcon” and “The Winter Soldier” their plaques said.

What…

Loki found his eyes drawn up to the sign again. THE AVENGERS. Hovering right underneath it suspended on a wire was…

Well, it was Thor. In armor and a red cape, holding an axe as big as his body. It even had the eyepatch. Whoever had designed the face had done an amazing job. Loki would know it anywhere. His throat was tight, and he found he had put both hands on the glass, his breath fogging it.

“Move it, pal,” a voice said to his right. Someone had come out of the store and was scowling at him, arms crossed. “This ain’t a museum.”

“Sorry,” Loki said, backing away. “Sorry.”

He stumbled down the sidewalk.

What did any of this mean?

Nothing made any sense.

He was so lost in his own tangled thoughts that it took him a few minutes to realize that everyone on the street was going the opposite way he was. Not just walking—running.

“Man, you are going the _wrong way_ ,” a guy said, shoving past him.

“Wrong way for what!” Loki called after him.

An explosion rocked the ground under his feet, and he almost fell.

“It’s Iron Man!” he heard someone scream.

Loki didn’t know what possessed him. He should have turned around and run like everyone else with more than one braincell. But instead he found himself dropping his bag and moving forward towards the explosions, like he was in a trance. The end of the block opened up on a park.

Somehow he knew what he was going to see before he saw it.

There they were, the action figures from the toy store window sprung to life, engaged in combat with what looked like mechanical drones. He should have known the Avengers were real people, right? Yeah, he should have. His eyes darted around, taking the whole scene in: Captain America hurling a shield at a drone and catching it on the ricochet ( _Steve’s frisbee_ his brain supplied helpfully), Falcon swooping in and picking one of the drones up, then dropping it to the ground from three stories up: the Winter Soldier with his back to Capt— _Steve_ —firing a gun.

Loki felt him before he saw him, a crackle in the air, the hair on the back of his neck rising.

“Thor,” Loki said.

Lightning struck all of the drones simultaneously, and their electronics flared and died before they fell to the ground, useless.

Thor leapt down, from where Loki didn’t know—a building, a cloud, outer fucking space. He was wearing a stupid band t-shirt and a painted-on pair of jeans ( _every pair of pants looks painted on when that ass is filling it_ Loki’s brain pointed out, not nearly as helpful as its last interruption—), but he had an axe in his hand and he was literally glowing with electricity.

“Holy shit,” Loki said.

Loki took a step towards him, then doubled over, suddenly dizzy. It was like—like he was seeing two of everything—this park and another park, no, a field?—this Thor and another Thor, with long hair, and something else in his hand—not an axe—a—a—a hammer?—

Loki retched and fell to his knees.

Some sixth sense made him look up. One of the drones had come back to life somehow. It was headed right for Thor, blades whirring—for his back, he couldn’t see it—his friends were too far away to help—

Steve threw his shield and Loki watched it fly in slow motion. It would never make it in time.

“NO!” Loki cried out, the word ripping from his throat. Something shifted inside him, and all his panic and anger and love—yes, love—welled up demanding to be let _out_.

Loki threw his arm out and let it.

Thor locked eyes with him for a startled second, then turned just in time to see the drone disintegrate in a swirl of green and gold sparkles. Steve’s shield flew through the space where it had just been. Thor caught it reflexively. Then Loki was taking a staggering step towards him, and another, and another, and Thor was running to meet him, tossing the shield to the side, and then Thor’s arms were around him and Loki grabbed both of his ears and dragged him down into a kiss.

“I died,” Loki said, pulling back and shaking Thor’s shoulders, wide-eyed. “I _died_.”

“Loki,” Thor said, and kissed him again. He was crying. “You remember.”

Wetness dripped from Loki’s chin and he realized he was crying too. They clung to each other until Thor’s friends made their way over, the Captain (who Loki realized he could only think of as _Steve_ now) and the other two, and then there was a warm blast of air as Stark touched down next to them.

“These Doombots were just a distraction,” Stark said, flipping his faceplate up. “Doom got away with the iridium he was looking for.”

“Not building a wormhole, is he?” Loki said. “That would be a _real_ work emergency.” He still held onto Thor’s arms.

“Oh is he back?” Stark said like Loki wasn’t there. “Great. Nice little family reunion, guys. Not the kind that I go in for, personally, but I guess they do things different in space—”

“Shut up, Stark,” Thor said.

Loki dragged Thor away, leaving the other four to argue about who was on clean-up and who was going to notify who about what and blah blah blah. He had a brother to yell at.

“What did you do to bring me back?” Loki demanded. “If you made any stupid bargains, I swear to all the fucking Fates—”

Thor was holding his hands and squeezing them with a big dopey smile on his face.

“I killed him,” Thor said. “Thanos. After he—after he did what he did, I went to Nidavellir and made an axe and sank it between his eyes.”

“And?”

“And then there was a glove full of infinity stones right there…”

“You _didn’t_.”

“I did.”

Loki shoved him, then grabbed his shirt and hauled him back in and kissed him. He didn’t know whether to keep crying or to laugh.

“Does this mean you aren’t mad at me any more?” Thor said.

“I’m furious,” Loki said. The effect was somewhat ruined by the way he cupped Thor’s cheek. “Livid.”

“I didn’t mean to bring you back with no memories. They...they are back?”

“Yes, oaf,” Loki said, soft and fond. They were. Mostly. There was still a blank spot here and there, which was slightly worrying, but—

“I can’t believe you took advantage of my state,” Loki said. “I was like a newborn babe. Look at me. You let me wear a _hoodie_.”

Thor grabbed the offending hood and pulled it up over Loki’s head. “You look cute in it.”

“You went on dates with me.”

“I was trying to ease you back into your memories—”

“You let me kiss you.”

Thor’s gaze went soft. “I did.”

Loki’s heart fluttered. “You still held a torch? After all these years?” The memory of their last kiss surfaced, two hundred years ago, when they were silly young things whispering promises to each other in the dark that they couldn’t keep. _A very long time ago, indeed_.

“It never went out,” Thor said. “Brother.”

Loki let Thor push the hood back down (even though his hair was probably ruined now) and kiss him again. He had _died_. He had died for his brother and his brother brought him back and his brother wanted to kiss him, and Loki wanted to kiss him back, very much. So he did. He did until it began growing heated enough that he really wanted to continue somewhere else that wasn’t out in the open air of Central Park, and he pushed away.

“Come on,” Loki said, taking Thor’s hand and lacing their fingers together.

Thor was smiling. “Where are we going?”

“I have an apartment that’s still technically mine,” Loki said. He arched a brow and gave Thor a smirk. “And I believe we have some unfinished business we started there.”

Thor laughed, and held out his hand to call his axe. He freed his other hand to wrap his arm around Loki’s waist and pull him in tight. 

“Does that new axe of yours fly?” Loki said. His stomach was already tightening in anticipation. Of the flight, and what happened next—not just right now (although that was its own kind of thrilling), but the day after, and the one after that, the two of them finally ready and able to face the future at each other’s sides, where they should be.

“It does,” Thor said. 

Loki kissed him, and Thor raised his arm high, and they flew.

**Author's Note:**

> twitter.com/thunderingraven


End file.
